Really? No ADR's needed for Universal/IOA? Even City Walk?

macraven · Apr 18, 2015

RocketCityMama said:
I am excited about this LOL I am from the WDW side too, first trip to USO in ummm 20 plus years!

you are in for a surprise as so much as changed in the past 20 years.

i hope you have a fantastic time when you do visit the darkside!!

you'll find out once you are there that the planning isn't necessary like it is for the motherland.
i do both parks each year and have a nice time at both.

tinkerbell313 · Apr 18, 2015

We are here this weekend. We did not make reservations for dinner last night (Friday night April 17) and we should have. Because it was Grad Night the parks shut down early forcing everyone to vacate to CityWalk. The smallest wait was Margarittaville at 1 hour 30 minutes. And that was at 8pm. We just went back to the hotel and grabbed a pizza.

We are back at CitiWalk tonight, it's 7:30, and most restaurants have an hour wait.

I wasn't expecting the wait but enjoying our time anyway!!

SarahInMN · Apr 18, 2015

bumbershoot said:
I think with Mythos you'll want to arrange something, just in case.

Agreed - we did all our other ressies (september 2014) on the fly but did make an advance ressie with Mythos. We got seated right away - the waiting area was packed, so we probably saved ourselves a 20-30 minute wait.

scoobydooby · Apr 19, 2015

Wow. So for the first five days of our trip before we head off to Disney, we can eat pretty much what and when we want depending on what we fancy???? Experienced Disney vet here but only my third trip to Universal in 17 years and our first on site. I can't quite believe it!!!

macraven · Apr 19, 2015

scooby if you plan to eat at city walk on a saturday night around 8, it would be wise to make a ressie then.
i'm thinking of margaritaville.
that would be my only exception of making plans in advance.

holiday times might be helpful.

other than that, i wing it for city walk.
have not run into any issues or long waits by doing that.

gunderda · Apr 20, 2015

Very glad to hear this.... Trying to plan stuff for Disney really exhausting.. it will be nice to do stuff on the fly when we're at Universal 2-3 days.
I'm totally ok if someone tells me it will be an hour wait because generally it's not that long.

RocketCityMama · Apr 23, 2015

macraven said:
you are in for a surprise as so much as changed in the past 20 years.

i hope you have a fantastic time when you do visit the darkside!!

you'll find out once you are there that the planning isn't necessary like it is for the motherland.
i do both parks each year and have a nice time at both.

Thanks, I am really looking forward to our trip! We have a special needs little one so we are going to take advantage of the pass for that, she has a heat intolerance due to meds, so we'll be hitting parks early and taking mid day break and come back in the evening. We have 3 days planned so I hope with a longer break mid day we can still get everything done

macraven · Apr 23, 2015

RocketCityMama said:
Thanks, I am really looking forward to our trip! We have a special needs little one so we are going to take advantage of the pass for that, she has a heat intolerance due to meds, so we'll be hitting parks early and taking mid day break and come back in the evening. We have 3 days planned so I hope with a longer break mid day we can still get everything done

take advantage of the first aid areas and the child care rooms in the parks.
with a special needs child you might want to take advantage of that to avoid heat and over stressing.

you could get out of the heat when your child can no longer tolerate it
if you need a longer period after resting at first aid or child care sections, going back to your room is another way you already planned on.

also use the child swap set up for the rides.
from the website:

Sit out then swap. If your kids are too small or unwilling to go on a particular ride you want to experience, please take advantage of our "child swap" program. Each ride and attraction has a child swap area where one member of your party can wait with the little ones while the rest of your party rides. Once they are off the ride, swap places and whoever rode can stay with the kids while the adult(s) who sat out get the opportunity to enjoy the ride.

chmurf · Apr 24, 2015

in 2013 I put my mouse ears on and made a reservation for Confisco Grill several months in advance (when it was on opentable)

I was so confident that I would need one ... silly me ... early november visit ... what was I thinking ... lol

when we showed up at the restaurant, we were seated instantly.
Wait ... I mentionned I had a reservation, and the TM went back to the entrance desk and looked it up ... It actually took more time to get seated with the reservation than it would have if I had kept my loud mouth shut

turned out there were only 5 tables occupied by the time we were through our meal ...

Bubba Gump was packed, but we didn't have to use our room key or my landry's select club card to get seated. It took us under 5 minutes from entering the restaurant to our table

but that was at a very slow time.

It's true that it's a relief not to have to plan billions of years in advance, but to be honest, the whole planning thing at 180 makes the wait more bearable. At least there's something to do

Armadillo4 · Apr 26, 2015

Just a word of caution. Yes, reservations for Universal table service restaurants are much easier than at WDW. I completely agree with this observation. But it's also a generalization and there can be exceptions.

I had a different experience trying to make reservations for Confisco Grille for a trip last November. I figured making a reservation 2 weeks in advance of my trip wouldn't have been a problem. Nope, Confisco Grille had no availability for late afternoon times on the two days I was at IOA. It wasn't a particularly busy period either, Nov. 1-2. And I was disappointed, since I was led to believe that reservations were easy to get. Now, I did make a mistake and didn't bother to check for walk-up availability when I was at IOA on those days. I'm guessing I probably could have gotten a table with a short wait.

So, there can be times when getting an advance reservation can be a little difficult. Making a blanket statement that you don't need to plan for advance reservations at Universal may not always be correct.

macraven · Apr 26, 2015

Armadilo, i see some posters say they never had waits and got right in on a saturday night.
once i didn't make a saturday night ressie for 7pm at city walk and couldn't get in without a long wait.
that was a first and last time i made that error.
so i never make those blanket statements, always add in certain time periods will have waits.

since i stay for a decent amount of time onsite, i only make a ressie for margarittaville if it is for a saturday evening.
the rest of my dining in the parks/city walk, i wing it.
i could eat at moes, sandwich box, etc and be happy.

anytime the parks close at 5:00 for a hard ticket event, peeps usually stop at city walk for a meal.
those that drove, sometimes need to wait for at least an hour for the parking garage to clear out and then not have heavy traffic returning home.
they hang out in city walk then.

for anyone that does make ressies, try to cancel them if your plans change and you won't be eating at that place.

i see mythos holding ressies for many and the stand by peeps wait longer until the no shows ressie are cancelled by the tm.

if you check for when park closings will be and find a hard ticket event happening for when you will be at the darkside,
you can bet city walk eateries will be having lines when park closes.

*LittleMermaid* · Apr 26, 2015

Yesterday Mythos was reservations only after around 2:00 PM and they were turning away people left and right. They closed at 4:00. They also had an hour wait for those wanting to eat during lunch rush. Reservations are recommended during busy days.

macraven · Apr 26, 2015

*LittleMermaid* said:
Yesterday Mythos was reservations only after around 2:00 PM and they were turning away people left and right. They closed at 4:00. They also had an hour wait for those wanting to eat during lunch rush. Reservations are recommended during busy days.

good advice littlemermaid!

i've over done mythos over the past 5 years and only hit it with others when they make plans in advance.
if i really want to do mythos, i either make a ressie or just go at opening and be on a wait list.

i'm still missing entrees they had many years back....

johde · Apr 27, 2015

macraven said:
i'm still missing entrees they had many years back....

I never got a change to try it but are you talking about the Blueberry Pork Chops. On my trip to Mythos I ended up getting the Risotto of the Day that was excellent instead of the Pork Chops. The Risotto is still there but now the pork chops are gone.

macraven · Apr 27, 2015

pork chops were good, sorry you missed them.
the sliders they had years ago also very good.

i'm missing foods that they had back in the 09 era....

i'm not a fan of any risotto and they do have that on their menus.
sounds like it is a winner at mythos.

keishashadow · Apr 27, 2015

*LittleMermaid* said:
Yesterday Mythos was reservations only after around 2:00 PM and they were turning away people left and right. They closed at 4:00. They also had an hour wait for those wanting to eat during lunch rush. Reservations are recommended during busy days.

jmho but once HP came along the TS venues have had longer waits and more difficult to book. In addition to the increased crowds, I chalk it up to the Disney commando effect, wherein they are conditioned to book ADRs.

RIP blueberry pork chops :duck:

but still happy risotto is on menu

momofallsons · Apr 27, 2015

How far in advance would you have to make reservations for Mythos?

macraven · Apr 27, 2015

Depends on dates of vacation

momofallsons · Apr 27, 2015

Weekend in mid-June?

macraven · Apr 27, 2015

i would make a ressie in advance since it can be a busy time at mythos.

don't know if they allow more than a 30 day out or more.

i've always done mine the day prior or the day of when i do mythos.

Really? No ADR's needed for Universal/IOA? Even City Walk?

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